Layered planar fuel cells and chemical reactors are difficult to manufacture. One major problem with the layered planar chemical reactor is that the layers must be held in intimate electrical contact with each other, which, if the intimate contact does not occur the internal resistance of the stack increases, decreasing the overall efficiency of the chemical reactor.
A second problem with the layered planar chemical reactor has been that with larger surface areas. It is difficult to maintain consistent contact with the inner recesses of the layered planar structured chemical reactor.
Existing devices also have the feature that with the layered planar chemical reactor since both reactants are required to flow within the plane of the layered planar structured chemical reactor, at least 4 and up to 6 distinct layers have been required to form a workable cell. These layers are usually manufactured into two separate chemical reactors components and then a chemical reactor stack is formed by bringing layers into contact with each other. When contacting the layers, care must be taken to allow gas diffusion within the layers while preventing gas from leaking from the assembled chemical reactor stack.
A need has existed for a micro or small chemical reactors having high volumetric power density.
A need has existed for a method for making a compact chemical reactor with a low cost manufacturing technique.
A need has existed for a method for making a micro chemical reactor having the ability to utilize a wide variety of electrolytes.
A need has existed for a method to make a micro chemical reactor, which has the ability to scale to higher power.
A need has existed for a method of making a compact chemical reactor capable of being connected together without the need for external components for connecting the chemical reactors together.
A need has existed for a method of making a compact fuel cell with high aspect ratio cavities. The aspect ratio of the fuel cell is defined as the ratio of the fuel cell cavity height to the width. Increasing this ratio is beneficial for increasing the efficiency of the fuel cell.
A need has existed to develop chemical reactor topologies or chemical reactor architectures that allow increased active areas to be included in the same volume, i.e. higher density of active areas. This will allow chemical reactors to be optimized in a manner different than from those being pursued by most chemical reactor developers today.
The present invention meets these needs.